fauxklore

The official blog post (written by me) wrapping up the Women’s Storytelling Festival is available now on the Better Said Than Done website blog. Here are a few additional comments.

First of all, you can still get a festival pass until April 8th, which will give you access to the recordings through April 28th. It’s definitely worth it for the amazing mix of stories by some incredibly talented tellers.
In addition to writing blog posts (the one linked here, as well as earlier ones about the tellers and the emcees), I also coordinated volunteers. This was a little stressful, but everybody who volunteered showed up on time and worked cheerfully. On Friday night, I learned how useless I was in figuring out how the support framework for the banner worked, but, fortunately, there were other people who were able to figure it out better than I could. I also did a shift at the ticket desk (on Saturday night), but there weren’t any last minute arrivals to deal with.
The other thing I did was emceeing the story swap. I felt a bit less organized about that than I usually do. What you can’t tell from the video is that I got my steps in by walking up and down the steps to the stage. That enabled me to sit in the front row of the audience, so the tellers could see my time cues, but it did slow things down a little. Despite which, we finished pretty much exactly on time. Everyone who wanted to tell was able to do, and other than not being able to decipher the handwriting of someone I know well, I didn’t badly manage people’s names. (But, really, Jane needs to learn how to write the letter “n”!) I also really appreciated Nina for including a pronunciation guide on her index card.
While I was familiar with many of the tellers, there were some I had never heard before. I knew I was going to be blown away by Megan Wells and Jennifer Munro, for example, but I hadn’t heard the extraordinarily funny Regina Stoops before. I was also reminded that I never mind hearing a good story more than once.
I want to blow my own horn just a tiny bit, since I had suggested we try to get an official government proclamation (at one of our committee meetings). Bonnie did a lot of the heavy lifting in facilitating that, however.
I really shouldn’t have to say this, but if you haven’t noticed, I love everything about this festival, which I’ve been involved with since it started. The first year was rough - 2020, need I say more? But we’ve worked well together and it’s something I’ve been proud to be a part of. I can’t express how grateful I am to Jessica for starting this and pulling together one of the best groups of people I’ve ever met to make it reality.